The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing flexible, sheet-like products having a feed conveyor for delivering the products to a receiving region of an intermediate conveyor which has a number of conveying elements arranged, one behind the other. The conveying elements moved in the direction of circulation along a circulatory path running through the receiving region and through a transfer region. This conveying process changes the position of the products fed to successive conveying elements in the receiving region such that the sequence of the products remains the same however, the mutually facing sides of the products are changed.
An apparatus of this type is disclosed in the earlier Switzerland Patent Application No. 1998 0476/98. By means of the conveying elements, which are designed as grippers, the products retained by the latter are drawn round the respectively following gripper from one side of said gripper to the other, which, in the case of a high processing capacity, requires high gripper retaining forces and subjects the products to considerable stressing.
Furthermore, EP-A-0 332 828 discloses an apparatus for separating stacked paper sheets. The separating apparatus has a rotary feeder which is assigned a stationary feeder magazine for receiving a stack of the paper sheets that are to be separated. The rotary feeder has hollow shafts which are arranged in a cage-like manner on equiaxially mounted disc plates and are driven counter to the direction of rotation of the disc plates. Three drum disc plates with a segment-like recess are positioned in a rotationally fixed manner on each hollow shaft. Provided on both sides of the drum disc plates are suction members which project radially away from the hollow shaft and of which the suction heads are aligned with the recesses of the drum disc plates. In the case of each hollow shaft, an endless guide belt wraps around the central drum disc plate over approximately half a circumference and, between the respectively adjacent hollow shafts, is guided around a deflecting roller mounted on the disc plates. The drum disc plates and guide rollers arranged between the latter in the circumferential direction of the rotary feeder serve as a rest for the stack arranged in the magazine. When the rotary feeder rotates, the suction members running in beneath the stack are subjected to a vacuum, with the result that they grip the lowermost printed sheet at the fold. During further rotary movement, the drum disc plates roll on the gripped printed sheet and the suction members retain the fold until the latter has been clamped in between the central drum disc plate and the guide belt. The sheet is then retained by the guide belt in abutment with the drum disc plates, carried away from the stack by a stripping-off action and then, at a transfer location, along with the action of the deflecting rollers, beyond the circumferential circle of the rotary feeder, introduced into a gripper of a removal conveyor with the fold in front.